Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a cooling device for a multistage compressor in which two coolers are placed in a common housing. The two coolers cool the medium of the preceding stage of the multistage compressor, the medium having been heated by the input compressor work. The common housing has chambers that are divided into different pressure stages, are connected to the multistage compressor by inlet tubes and outlet tubes, and contain water separators with condensate removal pipes associated with them.
Multistage compressor installations with a delivery capacity of between 20,000 and 200,000 m.sup.3 /h at final pressures between 6 and 12 bar are used for compressing air or similar gases. Multistage compressor installations achieve final pressures of up to 40 bar with a suction pressure of 5 to 6 bar.
For some applications, a compact design (a so-called "package") is required. In the compact design of a compressor installation, the coolers occupy a relatively large volume of the total installation. In a four-stage compressor, a total of four coolers are required when an after cooler is employed.
Compressor installations of compact design are known from prospectus MA 23.42/10.81 of the Mannesmann Demag firm. Because of their size, the coolers largely determine the space requirements of the compressor installation (see the photographs on the lower part of page 6 of the prospectus).
In the case of water cooling, oblong containers with circular bases are usually used as coolers. Axially parallel cooling elements are installed in the oblong containers. Cooling water flows through the cooling elements. Water separators are placed parallel to the cooling elements. The medium to be cooled is conducted by baffles.
A significant disadvantage of the known coolers is that they deflect the medium up to six times in the cooler. This is particularly true if the water separator is placed parallel to the cooling elements. Each deflection, of course, causes a pressure drop.